Voice of British Muslim Women

Bareera Ghaffar, Birmingham 

“My Lord, open out for me my breast, and ease for me my task, and loose the knot of my tongue, that they may understand my speech” – Surah Taha verse 26-29. The last few weeks I have found myself pondering on this verse in a different way than I had been for most of my life. This is the beauty of the Holy Qur’an, as time travels and situations change, one views verses they have been looking at with a new set of eyes, with a new wonder.  

I have found the sheer silence from many quarters that has veiled the unspeakable situation in Gaza particularly unnerving. We have seen the most barbaric and heinous of crimes. We have all been witness to the bloodbath taking place and the displacement and destruction of a people and a place. This silence is not due to the absence of people or organisations but rather a reluctance to speak up, to use their influence and power for this cause, to ask for peace. At the core of this dreadful war on Gaza are humans, who feel pain like us, who bleed like us and who breathe like us – not numbers or statistics, but humans like you and me. Therefore, in the face of such cruelty, when big corporations who claim to stand for the wellbeing of people or stand on the phrases like we have a zero tolerance… or academic institutions who pride themselves in the decolonising of their curriculums, when such places are unquivering to the cries of children, are unstirring to a mother covered in her children’s blood and quiescent to journalists dropping in their numbers, such a silence echoes. It is a testimony that even with all their power and influence they appear to be spineless, and for those who care, it should make our blood run cold.  

The silence pervades all, and history will remember this and will be unforgiving.  

Places and individuals who hail themselves as the leaders and trailblazers of free speech are in their numbers stifling narratives that do not align with their agendas. This hinders any dialogue that can be had and perpetuates certain ideas. The suppression of voices due to potential backlash and economic repercussions is not enough weight on human life, in fact it is incomprehensible.  

At the 2019 Peace Symposium His Holiness Mirza Masroor Ahmad, current worldwide head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community said “According to Islam, for peace to prevail, justice between nations is a prerequisite. Where countries face difficulties, other nations should seek to help them selflessly without pushing their own agendas”. The failings of such big institutions are not just in the silence of mere words, but it is in the failure of action that would and should follow – such institutions have access to resources and reach, their impact would cause vibrations throughout the world – yet complacency top trumps responsibility. The misguided notion that neutrality is a safe spot in the sight of such horrors is a stance that perpetuates a loop of destruction and suffering.  

Big institutions and influential individuals need to divorce themselves from neutrality and begin the ripple effect of being the voices of peace, long lasting peace in the region. They need to tear away from hesitancy and take a principled stance rooted in dignity, human rights, and equity without fear. The continuous atrocities taking place in Palestine are a proving ground for the moral state of the world, and currently we are in a vacuum where cries are being echoed away. The consequence of this silence is the shedding away of the foundational values these institutions are built on, and if that is the case…why are they even there?